Doctrinal leaders call for the death penalty for a wide range of crimes in addition to such contemporary capital crimes as rape, kidnapping, and murder. Death is also the punishment for apostasy, heresy, blasphemy, witchcraft, astrology, adultery, sodomy or homosexuality, incest, striking a parent, incorrigible juvenile delinquency, and, in the case of women, unchastity before marriage.

The Biblically approved methods of execution include burning (at the stake for example), stoning, hanging, and the sword. The laws in the Bible are not unlike those specified by Sharia law.

"[Reformation is] an amendment or repair of what is corrupt, to build the institutions of our governments and society according to their God-ordained order and organization. It means to institutionalize God’s will in how we do our daily business, deal with the poor, administer justice, make our laws, teach our children, and generally live our lives. It is to give people a license to do good and not a license to sin. It means turning our communities into places where God’s blessings flow from person to person just as God sees them flow in heaven.[1]"

"We realize God’s principles not only work within the walls of the church, but that He has principles that can benefit every area of society.[2]"

"Can you imagine what it would be like if any place you went--the grocery store, the bank, your local schools and city government--men and women were using kingdom principles to make decisions and carry out responsibilities? What would your city look like? What would your nation look like?[2]"

It would look like Saudi Arabia under Sharia law, or Europe during the middle ages with heretics being burned and vast inequality. While professing to be a just system, it would end in being thoroughly unjust because human rules need to have limits on their power, with checks and balances. Even if God existed, it would not stop a theocratic ruler running amok since humans are fallible. This is the primary motivation for secular systems of governments.

These policies are based on utopian thinking and prophesy. They believe if they implement their theocratic laws, things would get better. When this fails, they say even stricter laws are required, which again will fail. There is no reason to think that a theocratic system would be socially better than democracy (and many reasons to think to would be worse).

Karl Popper defined a closed society as one that requires physical force to change the government. Since there is no political means for people to change a theocratic government, their only means to change it is by force. Therefore, theocracies are closed societies.